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GOP offers spending plan without wall

By Kelsey Snell and Ed O'Keefe, The Washington Post

Updated:
04/26/2017 09:11:47 AM EDT

WASHINGTON -- A Republican bid to keep the government open past Friday includes no new money for the construction of a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to several congressional aides familiar with ongoing talks.

GOP leaders submitted the new offer Tuesday afternoon to appease Democrats, whose votes are needed to avert a shutdown of federal agencies, several House and Senate aides said.

However, Republicans also insisted on increases in border security and defense spending, including money to repair existing fencing and new surveillance technology to patrol the nearly 2,000-mile border.

Democrats have indicated that they would support such appropriations so long as no money goes toward an actual wall.

The two sides remain at odds over whether the spending bill would include money for subsidy payments under the Affordable Care Act, how long to extend a health-care program for coal miners and a series of unrelated policy measures known typically known as riders.

The new offer comes as Republicans also push negotiations on tax reform and health care, as they try to demonstrate forward motion on President Trump's other top domestic priorities.

On Monday, Trump seemed to soften his demand for immediate funding for construction of a border wall, telling a small group of conservative reporters that he would be open to delaying a confrontation with Democrats over the border until September.

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But on Tuesday, a defiant Trump insisted that "The wall's going to get built."

Meeting with farmers at the White House, he defended his administration's work on border security so far, noting that illegal border crossings have dropped more than 70 percent in the past year.

Asked by reporters when the wall would be built, Trump said, "Soon."

"We're already preparing. We're doing plans, we're doing specifications, we're doing a lot of work on the wall, and the wall is going to get built," he added.

When a reporter asked if the wall will be built in his first term, Trump said, "Yeah, we have plenty of time. We've got a lot of time."

Despite the president's fluctuations, congressional leaders remained encouraged that at least for now, the White House won't be pushing for border money.

"The fact that the wall is now off the table -- Americans should breathe a huge sigh of relief," said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

"I think he realizes that it is unlikely to be part of the negotiation this time around," Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., a member of Senate leadership, said of Trump. "It is becoming more of a nonissue."

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a top appropriator, called Trump's comments "helpful" to resolving weeks of talks over government spending.

"This is that moment where the president has to determine that you need some Democrat votes in the Senate to get the bill done. And the Democrats have to determine that there are a lot of things in that bill that they want as well," Blunt said. "They need a bill that the president will sign, and nobody can get too far out of the zone and hope to get both of those things done."

But Trump's comments earned a swift rebuke Tuesday from prominent conservatives, including radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who told his millions of listeners that Trump is "caving on his demand" for money to build a border wall.

Faulting Democrats for threatening a shutdown, Limbaugh added that if Trump is "willing to withdraw a demand" for border money, "then the Democrats will have just learned that this threat works on Trump, too, not just all the other Republicans."

House and Senate negotiators worked throughout a two-week Easter break on details of the spending plan, but the talks broke down last week after White House officials began demanding greater concessions from Democrats, including explicit funding for the border wall. Democrats firmly oppose any new money for construction of a wall, but have said they are willing to agree to significant increases in defense spending, including money for the Department of Homeland Security to spend on surveillance and security on the border with Mexico.

The issue of health subsidy payments, which affect approximately 7 million Americans, has become the primary sticking point in the talks, the aides said. Democratic leaders demanded that the payments, which are included in the Affordable Care Act but which Trump has said he might not continue, be fully funded in the short-term spending bill to give Congress the power to make the payments.

But some Democrats have signaled a willingness to back down from that demand if the White House commits to continuing the payments on its own. Democrats may also be calculating that, if Trump decides to stop the payments, the near-certain political damage would fall to him.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the second-ranking member of his caucus, said Tuesday that the subsidies should be handled by the White House, not Congress.

"The president has the authority to go ahead and do it. He ought to do it," Hoyer told reporters.

The payments are the subject of an ongoing lawsuit filed by House Republicans, which argues that Congress should have to sign off on the payments. A federal district court ruled last year that the subsidy payments were illegal but allowed the program to continue during the appeals process.

With spending talks still underway, Republican leaders also plan to launch talks on Tuesday over Trump's tax reform proposals and new plans to salvage an Obamacare replacement bill.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn are set to meet with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and leaders of the congressional tax-writing committees to review details of Trump's plan.

The president has instructed advisers to propose cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, according to White House officials who said they were not authorized to speak publicly about the plan. The rate reduction --which independent budget experts say could cost the federal government $2.4 trillion over a decade -- is larger than what House Republicans had proposed in their own plan.

Meanwhile, senior leaders of the House Freedom Caucus -- the conservative bloc of lawmakers who opposed the initial Obamacare replacement plan -- are scheduled to meet Tuesday evening as the House comes back into session. The entire caucus isn't scheduled to meet to discuss a way forward on health-care legislation until Wednesday night, aides said.

Republicans are also working to better define Trump's signature campaign promise, the border wall, arguing that any form of border security would fulfill it.

"A lot of us have been pushing for additional border security funding for a while, but a solitary, 2,000-mile wall has never been a must-have for anybody in a border state," said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.

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